BUSI MAVUSO: It’s urgent fiscal reform — or bust

One of our greatest disadvantages as Covid-19 hit in March 2020 was that as a result of the so-called lost nine years, we were in very weak fiscal shape to react to the economic damage that would unfold in its wake. A decade of low growth, rising debt and falling confidence levels — amid tales of rampant state capture-led corruption dominating our national news headlines — had weakened our fiscal position and triggered a slew of downgrades of our credit ratings into junk status.

Our immediate and only defence against the storm unleashed by the lockdowns was for the Reserve Bank to aggressively cut interest rates in unison with many of the world’s central banks. The four consecutive cuts between March and June 2020 were supportive of an economy that, for lack of any other word, was in shock. Monetary policy that is so often criticised for its conservatism stepped into the breach when it was needed. As inflationary pressures rise globally, it now looks like the window...

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EFF to run its election campaign using a bank loanOne of the party's policy positions is that banks must be nationalised, possibly without compensation, but for now it's promising to repay its debt. VBS is liquidated.Another one must kick in. Sheer genius this party. We don't need to nationalise all the banks. We need to destroy its oligopoly and grant commercial license to many actors, regulate them strictly & create the SA Central Bank in the place of the reserve bank which will determine economic policies, not some nefarious market forces.
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